Correcting user account and mailbox associations

We’ve been running in mixed-mode for some time and occasionally come across a user that was migrated from NT4 with two accounts in Active Directory. This is often flagged because they cannot log in to Outlook Web Access. On inspection only one of the user accounts has a mailbox associated with it. A closer look shows that the account without the mailbox has the correct user ID (the one they log in with), whereas the account with the mailbox has a garbage user ID that has been auto-created by the Active Directory Connector. We therefore need to swap the mailbox association and delete the incorrect account. Here’s the process that we use:

In Active Directory Users & Computers note SMTP addresses, group memberships, address and phone details of the account currently associated to the mailbox.

Note the current mailbox store.

Remove the Exchange attributes from the account.

Rename the account to have a prefix of ‘Disabled –‘. Disable the account and move to the Disabled Accounts OU (this is an OU we have created in our AD).

Connect Exchange Admin to the Exchange 5.5 server at the other end of the relevant connection agreement.

Delete the mailbox entry in Exchange Admin.

In ESM find the correct mailbox store. Expand and right click on the Mailboxes folder and select ‘Run Cleanup Agent’.

Refresh the view and the mailbox should now have a red cross on it.

Right click on the mailbox and select ‘Reconnect’. Select the correct account when prompted.